Being an eighth grader in the high school marching band gave me insight to what life would be like in high school. Often I would hear conversations concerning friends, relationships and academics from fellow instrumentalists. A common topic was an English and Latin teacher named Mr. Dodge. Constant complaints about his course load would come up, but yet everyone knew that doing his work was worth it. I heard he was a tough teacher and I knew that he taught Latin for freshmen so I wanted to take it. By taking many of Mr. Dodge’s classes I learned that hard work pays off, made me understand a deeper level of reading, and completely understand the purpose of writing and how to write.
Mr. Dodge never assigned busy work but work that was in the best interest of our learning which led me to the belief that hard work does benefit in the end. He thought that giving assignments to students just to keep them busy (hence, busy work) was pointless and hindering the students learning. He believed that giving students packets to learn the material did not work and thus, the only homework I had done was to make sure that I would learn the material. This made me feel that the work I was doing in his class mattered and was only assigned for the purpose of a grade. It made me appreciate that the endless memorizing of Latin declensions I was doing for class had a purpose. The rigorous and challenging material that was presented to us had an even more rewarding factor. The feeling of accomplishment after finally understanding, for example, what noun cases should be followed by certain tenses of verbs was completely worth all of the time I had put into it.
When I took advanced placement English with Mr. Dodge my senior year of high school, he taught me how subtle details in books will help in the underlying meaning of the book. At first, I had no idea what he was trying to get at when explaining to us how certain context clues would make for a better understanding of the book as a whole. For instance, Mr. Dodge was explaining how Brave New World ended in tragedy and how fate which is connected with the number three, leads to the tragedy. He would show us where in the book the number three came up, or how the savage went on a tour that showed three different locations. The savage, named John, died tragically because of the “new world” he went to. Once I started making connections such as this while I was reading, reading turned into an even more pleasurable experience.
Of course reading good literature correlated directly with good writing and Mr. Dodge made me understand that in order to write well, you must fall in love with your idea. Writing organizes your thoughts but more importantly allows you to share your ideas with others. He taught me that if I am spending time to do something, I should at least make it be an enjoyable process. Thus the concept of, falling in love with your idea. If you make it interesting for yourself, chances are, the reader will feel the same. I took this same idea into my other classes and even my personal writing as well.
Mr. Dodge has positively influenced me academically. He taught me the purpose of school is for learning and not the grade, so that working hard pays off. Understanding a deeper level of reading and the purpose of writing impacted my writing in other courses too. Everything he has taught me I took with me to college and has overall made me better prepared for what I thought was going to be a rough first year of college.
Mr. Dodge never assigned busy work but work that was in the best interest of our learning which led me to the belief that hard work does benefit in the end. He thought that giving assignments to students just to keep them busy (hence, busy work) was pointless and hindering the students learning. He believed that giving students packets to learn the material did not work and thus, the only homework I had done was to make sure that I would learn the material. This made me feel that the work I was doing in his class mattered and was only assigned for the purpose of a grade. It made me appreciate that the endless memorizing of Latin declensions I was doing for class had a purpose. The rigorous and challenging material that was presented to us had an even more rewarding factor. The feeling of accomplishment after finally understanding, for example, what noun cases should be followed by certain tenses of verbs was completely worth all of the time I had put into it.
When I took advanced placement English with Mr. Dodge my senior year of high school, he taught me how subtle details in books will help in the underlying meaning of the book. At first, I had no idea what he was trying to get at when explaining to us how certain context clues would make for a better understanding of the book as a whole. For instance, Mr. Dodge was explaining how Brave New World ended in tragedy and how fate which is connected with the number three, leads to the tragedy. He would show us where in the book the number three came up, or how the savage went on a tour that showed three different locations. The savage, named John, died tragically because of the “new world” he went to. Once I started making connections such as this while I was reading, reading turned into an even more pleasurable experience.
Of course reading good literature correlated directly with good writing and Mr. Dodge made me understand that in order to write well, you must fall in love with your idea. Writing organizes your thoughts but more importantly allows you to share your ideas with others. He taught me that if I am spending time to do something, I should at least make it be an enjoyable process. Thus the concept of, falling in love with your idea. If you make it interesting for yourself, chances are, the reader will feel the same. I took this same idea into my other classes and even my personal writing as well.
Mr. Dodge has positively influenced me academically. He taught me the purpose of school is for learning and not the grade, so that working hard pays off. Understanding a deeper level of reading and the purpose of writing impacted my writing in other courses too. Everything he has taught me I took with me to college and has overall made me better prepared for what I thought was going to be a rough first year of college.